Chrome

Google has rolled out an update for Chrome Beta for Android, which is its snazzy Chrome browser for your favorite Android-based mobile device. As with past updates, this one brings along a couple of improvements to fix some common complaints users have, making the overall experience more pleasant and less frustrating. This time around, the update improves fullscreen and link redirects.

Google's answer to the heaps of note-taking apps out there is now available in the Chrome Web Store. Google Keep has come to the desktop after being released on Android back in March, allowing users to take notes on their computer and have them synced up to their Android devices for on-the-go use.

There are some universally annoying things the average Web surfer will encounter from time-to-time, and while the list is mostly made up of pop-up advertisements that bypass your ad-blocker, one of them is direct-file links to things like PowerPoint and Word files. Clicking one of these files results in it being downloaded and opened by the application, a potentially slow and usually unwanted action. Google aims to solve this problem with the launch of Chrome Office Viewer (Beta).

Google is mighty proud of Chrome's security, something it has taken a proactive stance on. Back in December, the Internet giant put the kibosh on silent extensions, which are the sleeper-cell kind that slip in unnoticed and unwanted, installing by default. This move has been expanded on, with the company announcing earlier today a new safeguard that ensures malicious extensions stay out of your browser.

Google rolled out a Chrome Beta update yesterday, bringing with it a couple of improvements that have been long-anticipated, and that provide Android users with some much-needed functionality. After updating, Chrome Beta for Android users will have easy full-screen Web browsing and improved search via Omnibox. The update can be grabbed now from the Play Store.

Google issued a fairly minor, but still noteworthy update to its Chrome iOS app today. The update now includes full-screen browsing, as well as new printing options, allowing users to take advantage of Google's CloudPrint protocol or Apple's AirPrint feature. The update also comes with support to save a website to a PDF directly to Google Drive.

Earlier this week we talked about Google's decision to move Chrome away from WebKit and develop its own Blink browser rendering engine in an effort to speed things up. At the time Chrome developers argued that WebKit had become difficult to deal with and developers often accidentally broke things while working on a project. Google says that Blink will give developers more assurance that when they change something, it will only affect what they expect it to affect.

Chrome 27 Beta browser has been released by Google, bringing with it some goodies for developers, as well as faster page loading to the tune of about 5-percent. Users who don't mind dippingo into beta territory can grab the latest download now from the Chrome beta page. We've got a run down of the new features and improvements after the jump.

Google's decision to branch off from WebKit and develop its own Blink browser rendering engine is a matter of speed not fragmentation and control, one Chrome team developer has argued, pointing out that what's currently the de-facto standard has already become a weight around devs' necks. "To make a better platform faster, you must be able to iterate faster" Google London's Alex Russell argues, likening the sluggishness of adding and tweaking WebKit features to the inefficiency of using an old computer when newer, faster ones are available. As a bonus, he points out, developers will be less likely to inadvertently break something when modifying the Blink engine, a situation Russell says can often occur when dealing with WebKit.

WebKit makes the web go 'round, and yet it is soon to be joined by a new kid on the block: Blink, which was announced on Chromium's blog earlier today. Says Chromium, the decision to create a new rendering engine "was not an easy" one, but ultimately good will come from it. Developers don't need to worry, as the announcement reassures that little will change for them during the initial rounds of work.